It’s probably no surprise to you that I have an ingredient problem. So many things are just $3–$5 for the smaller size, and then the descriptions and reviews sound so promising… and before I know it I’ve justified a cart full of mysterious powders, oils, and miscellany. Unfortunately, not all of my little investigative gambles have paid off. Some have been full on regrets, and some have been the sort of thing where it’s only useful for a select few things. So, here’s my list of things I don’t think are worth buying, or should at least think twice about. Hopefully I can save you a few dollars and a few regrets.
Every colour of mica & oxide
If you just take a moment to brush up on your colour theory, you can get by with just the primary colours (red, yellow, and blue… plus brown, black and white [titanium dioxide]) for most things by blending (yellow + red = orange, etc.). Same with micas—get silver and maybe gold or copper, and then shift the colour with oxides.
Most fruit & botanical extracts
I’m not talking about herbs, here—I’m talking about dropping $10 on mysterious strawberry dust or $17 on seabuckthorn powder. If you can get it as a carrier oil or essential oil, do. If you can buy it as a non-powdered herb, do—it makes much easier to strain herbal oils. Look at the vitamins they’re bragging about—don’t you already have a carrier oil high in those vitamins?
Mostly, just be careful. You can spend a lot of money on these powders, and end up with $200 of baggies of powder that aren’t as amazing as you had hoped. Make sure you have a few ideas or recipes before you buy it, and always read the reviews.
Fancy exfoliants
Many things in your kitchen will add an exfoliating kick to your products without needing to go out and splurge on fancy jojoba beads or luffa bits. Some of my favourite exfoliants are baking soda (USA / Canada), lightly ground grains (oats, rice, barley, etc.), coarser clays, salt, and sugar.
The majority of essential oils that are being discontinued
I have never bought an essential oil that’s on the “to be discontinued & hence marked down” list and immediately thought “I can’t believe this is being discontinued.” They are usually sort of weird and not all that enjoyable or memorable. They almost always end up playing a small part in a soap blend or two just so I can use them up.
Fancy-pants expensive salts
I bought Dead Sea salts. I used up my Dead Sea salts. I still couldn’t tell you anything about Dead Sea salts except that they are a lot more expensive than normal salt. I suspect most expensive salts are in the same category, and will not be investing the money to find out. If you want pink salt, use a bit of beetroot powder (or some other pink/red plant powder) to make Epsom salts pink.
Dead Sea mud
The tub of Dead Sea mud I have in my cupboard (and have had for at least two years now, barely touched) will be the last time I pay for mud. I prefer clay masks. If you have had fantastic experiences with Dead Sea mud, or have a project planned out that will make use of it, great (it does make lovely soap, and I’ve heard good things about body scrubs, though I imagine they’d be very messy)—but I haven’t been overly impressed with it.
Bleached beeswax
While I can understand that there are some uses for unscented cocoa butter (USA / Canada), unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada), and coconut oil, buying bleached beeswax is extra awful because it’s usually from China, and you have actually options when it comes to beeswax. Why buy heavily processed, bleached pellets of Chinese beeswax when you can buy a beautiful local block from your nearest farmer’s market?
Fake butters
By “fake” I mean things like “aloe butter” and “lime blend butter” that masquerade as actual butters. What on earth are those things? Lab-based wizardry, more often than not.
Pre-Steeped Herbal Oils
These are a major price gouge. 500mL of arnica steeped olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada) is over $40. 500mL of olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada) might cost you $6, and 75g of arnica flowers is about $4. Put them in a jar together, wait three weeks, and save $30. Sure, you won’t know the exact strength, but for $30 I am ok with that.
3% Essential Oil Dilutions
Unless you really could never afford the essential oil itself (rose, you pricey minx…), the 3% dilutions are rip-offs—a 15mL bottle of a 3% dilution doesn’t even contain half a milliliter of the essential oil. For example, German Chamomile essential oil is $80.84/15mL, while the 3% dilution is $5.78. If you do the math on the price per milliliter of the actual essential oil, the pure is $5.39/mL, but the diluted is $12.84/mL—more than twice the price. Now, I’m not suggesting you drop $80 on a bottle of essential oil, but I am recommending that you take a look at the price of the 5mL bottle and see if it’s do-able. And, if you do buy the 3% dilution, don’t put it in soap and waste it—the scent won’t make it.
All the plant-derived, water-soluble red colourants you can find
I already did the experiments on these in my quest for lip stain, so if your idea is to make lip stain, please don’t buy all the plant-derived, water-soluble red colourants you can find. I did, and I’ve had a hard time finding uses for them after determining they make crap reddish lip water.
Things you shouldn’t buy if you don’t soap
- Seaweed powder—I find this to be too irritating to use on my face in high concentrations, and in smaller concentrations it takes ages to work through even the smallest tub of it. It is really fun to use in soap, though.
- Bleached coconut oil—it’s cheap & great for soaping, but go with the virgin stuff if you don’t need it in soap style quantities
Food Grade Oils
They are way more expensive than cosmetic grade, and are sometimes processed differently (argan oil, for example, is roasted when it’s prepared for food, so it’s not as effective on the skin & far more fragrant). The only exceptions are very cheap olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada) and lard/tallow.
So, what about you? What ingredients will you never buy, or never buy again?
Hi, love your posts. I make moisturizers at home and have figured out a great recipe but I have one problem. When it’s first made and hardened it’s a perfect texture. A little after I start using a small container it changes from smooth to dry and it looks like the cocoa butter separates and makes it gritty but, it still melts at body temp. I have several new unused containers that are fine. Got any ideas?
Ann
Hi Ann! I’m afraid I can’t help you at all without any details about what you’re doing 😛 Can you give me your recipe & process?
I could be wrong, but it sounds like you haven’t tempered your butters. If you are using raw shea or cocoa butter, when it cools the stearic acid will clump and give it a gritty feeling, but it will still melt right in. Some say to heat and hold it at 120 degrees F for 20 minutes. Some say heat to liquid and pour into smallish molds and put in the freezer to cool quickly, then store at room temperature. I’ve never tried heating and holding, but the freezer trick works well for me.
I have had good success with popping things in the freezer, but I do sometimes find that the graininess pops up months or even years after the initial melting. I have also noticed that a lack of wax in a formulation can make for a more grainy final product if you let it cool at room temperature.
That’s good information. I’m not sure that I was clear in my last post. The final product isn’t tempered, just the shea, cocoa, or mango butter. Once it has cooled and re-hardened, it can be stored away and used normally. Since I’ve been doing this, I haven’t had any graininess in my products at all.
Ah, interesting. I wonder, though, why the stearic acid is only inclined to pop out on the first melt, but not any subsequent melts?
I totally agree with all ingredients you mentioned in this post, except Dead sea mud. This one is the main ingredient in our masks which sell faster that I can order the mud for it 🙂 So, just few days ago I ordered 55lb of mud from NDA 🙂 Never regret. I agree, it’s bid not practical to use by itself by once you dilute it with your preferable other actives, it’s awesome!
The Dead Sea mud is definitely the one I’m the most on the fence about in this list. I would still love to find some uses for it that I adore—I just tried a soap with it, and I’ll be able to try it in a few weeks and see what I think 🙂
Eucalyptus charcoal… I tried to make an eyeliner and mascara, but it didn’t work, and now I have no idea what to do with that (they say it’s edible, but excuse me if I don’t want to eat charcoal…)
Use it as toothpaste!!! Or a mouth rinse… I am a smoker, a coffee drinker, a loose leaf tea drinker like there is no tomorrow. My dentist is always amazed that my teeth so white!
wow! do you have a recipe you’d be willing to share for the toothpaste? my husband and i are both the drinkers and hes coffee. we need something to help whiten our teeth also 😉
A couple times a week I just dip my dry brush into my charcoal jar, tap and brush as usual. You have to do a good job rinsing, but that is all I do! Sometimes, I’ll add some clove powder or cinnamon powder or even Bentonite clay (make sure you have no metal fillings), then swirl the black mess around, pulling it through my teeth and such. Rinse well.
Very easy!
I was really relieved to find that the charcoal doesn’t stain anything in my bathroom, assuming I rinse it quickly 😛 And ooooh heavens, I do enjoy the small dose of cardio I get from catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror with my scary black teeth lol!
I usually just tap a wee bit (usually one capsule, since mine come in capsules & they are hard to store as halves haha) onto my brush, brush away, and avoid looking in the mirror lol! It’s a scary sight 😛
How interesting! I love using activated charcoal for tooth whitening/cleaning, but I’ve never tried Eucalyptus charcoal.
Hmm… soap? That’s where all my odd ingredients tend to go, haha. I know activated charcoal is a popular remedy for things like food poisoning since it’s so absorbent, and I’ve had fun adding it to face masks for the same reason. I’m not sure if Eucalyptus charcoal is activated, though :/
I have some that I bought to color soap – I haven’t tried it yet but have seen some nice results from others. It was activated charcoal and not eucalyptus though, so I’m not sure if that would be any different.
Activated charcoal is good for stomach bugs, so you could get some empty capsules to keep it around for that. I tried putting some of the charcoal directly into smoothies for my family when we all had a stomach bug, and the lesson I learned is that no matter what else you put into a smoothie, you probably can’t get kids to drink it when it is black! I didn’t even want to drink it!
Ha! Perhaps try the smoothies again on Halloween? 😛
I actually live in China. And as much as I try to find local beeswax, I cannot. It always makes me laugh to no end; I want something. So I search and search for it with no luck. So I order online. I have to pay extra as I want a “western” product which always means extra shipping as well. When it arrives? That’s the greatest chuckle of them all. Made in China. Sent to America. Bought in America and sent back to China with a bagillion percent mark-up.
I agree with everything on your list!!! I just need to add one more thing; if you live in a country where you don’t speak the language, don’t buy infused oils as you need to know what oil they used! I’ve many oils like aloe oil and comfrey oil and calendula oil but I have no idea what oils they were infused in. So I am stuck with bottles of oils that I have no use for. It is so much cheaper to just buy a carrier oil in bulk and some tea and infuse your own just like you said.
I infuse coconut oil with rose bud tea and use homemade rose hydrosol instead of paying the outrageous cost of rose essential oil.
This is both funny and sad 🙁 It would be like not being able to buy maple syrup in Canada!
Your tip on watching foreign language labels is a great one, and yes, DIY hydrosols are the only way to go!
How does a person make hydrosols? I bought some mustard oil recently at an ethnic shop. I stop at ALL of them for fear of missing out on a new oil. I haven’t heard of anyone else’s experience with though. I haven’t tried it yet….but LOVE the rice bran oil I got at World Market.
Hydrosols are pretty simple—like making tea 🙂 Steep the plant matter in some hot water until you’ve reached the desired strength, and then strain out the solids (they’ll go all mucky and gross, like leaf litter in a pond, if you leave them in there too long). You can also do a cold steep using cold water, and just leave the plant matter in there longer (maybe a day).
Have you tried shopping online for fun new oils? The prices are often better, and cosmetic grade oils are not always prepared the same way as food grade oils—food grade oils are generally prepared to maximize taste, while cosmetic grade are prepared to maximize the benefits for the skin and hair 🙂 I could peruse the oils section over at NDA for days… and I have, haha! Ethnic shops can be awesome places to get unique hydrosols, too—if you haven’t looked, take a gander on your next visit 🙂 Rose water and orange blossom water are often wonderfully inexpensive, and can make for lovely cocktails!
So, hydrosols are just infused water or oil with flowers, spices, or bark… do I understand this correctly? (If so..) Easy enough…thank you for clarifying that for me. Apparently I’ve been making hydrosols for some time now 🙂
I have shopped on line for some oils but since shipping can pretty expensive, I like to try before I buy (bulk purchase on occasion, and shipping), so I know I really do like the type of oil I’m ordering. (not sure if that makes real sense or not).
I’m just amazed how quickly you are able to respond to your reader comments Marie. My hat’s off to you!
It has been my understanding that hydrosols are much more complicated than infusing plant material with water but are a by-product of essential oil production and steam distillation.
You’re totally correct, Linda—I should have specified that the “tea” method is my workaround for those of us who don’t have stills (which is most of us, I’ve found). It works well enough for my purposes, but if you really want to dig into it, there’s a good overview here.
Well, I should have specified that the “tea” method is my still-less workaround. If you have a still the correct (and more involved) method is outlined here. I have found that this works well enough for my purposes, though.
And fair enough on wanting to test things out first—your local markets must be very well priced if purchasing the oils locally is feasible. Here things are generally 4x+ the cost, so it’s better to test larger amounts bought online as it is quite a lot cheaper!
You’re catching me on a good spell of replying here 😛 I replied to well over 100 comments on Sunday o_O
Stumbled on your blog as a newbie soapmaker, and I can’t get enough! Just starting out buying some of these ingredients it’s good to know which products I might covet but end up never using… 🙂
On the hydrosols note, you can pretty effectively make your own without actually having a real live still. I have lavender plants that I’ve harvested and made into hydrosols using a simmering pot “still” as per the info here: http://mamarosemary.com/blog/2013/07/26/how-to-make-a-hydrosol
It’s actually surprisingly simple to do and makes a lovely product in the end. Maybe not equivalent to a commercially produced one, but effective for me anyway!
Keep up the awesome DIY blogging job! I can’t wait to read more.
Great tip—thanks, Chelsea! I’ll have to give that a go next year when my rose bush is in full bloom 🙂
Hi Marie happy resurrection day! I was wondering If you can use ( fresh ) lam, or goat fat to make soap? And how you might render it for the soap? We have a small farm & I’m trying to learn What to do with all parts . Thanks an GOD Bless
You definitely can, Cheryl! How exciting, to have your own homegrown fats for soaping with—I’m a wee bit jealous, to be sure 😉 These fats will count as the hard fats for your recipe, replacing things like lard, tallow, or palm oil, and you’ll want to use them at percentages of about 15–30% (though always feel free to play!). Here’s how to render the fats. You may want to render them several times to get them nice and clean. After that you’ll just need the SAP values (or a soap calculator that has them) so you can properly calculate your recipes. SoapCalc has both sheep & goat tallow so you’re good to go 🙂 Have fun & thanks for reading!
Great post. I have learned the hard way on some of these but won’t on others now. Thanks for all you do.
Glad you found it useful 🙂 Thanks for reading!
Love your blog, posts, everything! I agree with the ingredients you listed as ‘not need’ and, especially ‘why’ they’re not needed. I’m still a newbie at this and can’t afford to make a costly mistake. I do a lot of oil infusions and the main cost to me is patience, lol! My latest experiment was in making rose hip carrier oil. I was able to get dried rose hip locally and just used my grinder to ‘break it down’ as much as possible (it never got anywhere close to a powder). I let it infuse in almond oil for quite a while (no way to tell what percentage was actually rose hip). I did have to strain a number of times but the final product was lovely. I used some of it in a serum I made for a skin abrasion my daughter was dealing with. She said it definitely helped the healing and lessened the discomfort. Someone is sending me a sample of their rose hip oil so I can compare. If I ever start selling my products I will use the real thing though!
Liz
Thanks, Liz! It sounds like you are an oil infusion whiz 🙂 We have lots of rosehips growing naturally here, I should go raid a local park and try making my own rosehip infused oil like yours, it would be a fun project & very cool to do a bit of wild foraging. Great idea!
Love this post. I wanted to purchase a few of the botanicals at NDA and I am so glad I didn’t. The only two I’ll probably purchase are the cucumber extract and White willow bark extract.
I can’t believe you purchased the Buchu 🙂 I like the description, but didn’t think the price was worth it; looks as if I was right.
And I love the Dead Sea Mud I purchased from NDA, I use it straight from the container and it works great for my oily skin…the scent is horrible though :/
Finally, what is the purpose of bleached beeswax 0_o sounds like I should just use candelilla wax instead
Good choices—I’ve actually been able to do things with the cucumber and WWB. The others are getting slowly blended into soaps and bath bombs, lol.
The buchu was only about $7, so not stupid expensive, but I would rather have that $7 :/ Sigh. My loss is your gain 😛
It seems the Dead Sea mud has some fans! Perhaps I should give it another go 😛
I have heard that some people don’t like the smell of natural beeswax… but… why?! Oh well. We can’t understand everyone 😛
I have a comment about the salts. Not Dead Sea salt, though it’s mainly supposed to have lots of good healthy minerals in it that can be absorbed through the skin.
The Himalayan pink rock salt is something I use mixed with Epsom salts in my bath. Not for the color, but because when heated it lets off negative ions that are healthy for us to breathe and for the air around us. They give a sense of well-being, like being in the woods or at the beach. I can use all the help I can get! LOL
I wanted to ask you if you’ve heard of or tried Watermelon Seed Oil? It sounds wonderful, but don’t they all.
(Btw, I just made a double batch of those spiced caramel pecans, waiting for them to cool.
Hmmm, interesting. If I ever see some Himalayan pink salts at a low price I may just give them a try… though now I’m wondering if the placebo effect will completely eliminate my ability to objectively evaluate them 😛
I’ve never tried watermelon seed oil, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it for sale, either, so I’m afraid I can’t be of much use there—sorry!
Ooooh… spiced caramel pecans… what are they going into this time?
The pecans are probably going into my mouth! Though I made a double batch, hoping for enough to store for adding to yummy stuff like salad and ice cream.
Meanwhile, I am planning to make your lemon curd tomorrow. I just made a batch of lemon extract and after 3 weeks’ infusing, it’s ready. Figured this would be the perfect trial.
Ooooh, fantastic—it sounds like your kitchen is going to be wonderfully stocked with all kinds of delicious goodies 😀
Is Mica tints considered “natural”? It’s artificial huh? If so do you know of all natural tints for lip balms besides beets?
Thank you and I love your blog btw
Micas are, sadly, rather artificial—they’re coloured using FD&C dyes. If you want an all natural lip balm tint for something that is entirely oil based you are mostly limited to carmine. Don’t use beetroot! It’s water soluble and makes an absolutely awful lip balm :/ Most of the plant extracts really don’t contribute much colour, and they’re never oil soluble. You can try an infusion, but don’t just add the powder or it’ll be really gritty.
I have had terrible luck with the beetroot. I have given up on it and just use Kaolin Clay now as the color seems to be close enough for my needs. Does anyone have any suggestions for me on that one since you brought it up?
Thanks a lot!
Yup. Beetroot = useless in most applications you thought it would be awesome for 🙁 I’ve managed to use it in lip gloss and bath bombs, but I certainly wouldn’t recommend acquiring it for either if you don’t already have it!
Hi! I’m going to be making mineral makeup, but I can’t seem to find the nice colour-balancing blue or green colours in iron oxide form (unlike the red / yellow / brown / black, which are everywhere!) We use the oxides ‘cos we think they’re pretty harmless and healthy for our skin, right?
I can find something called Ultramarine Blue, but that seems to be produced via complicated chemical processing.. Is that the same blue that you use, and if so, is it safe?
If the answer is ‘yes’ to both questions, you should totally look into using the Ultramarine Pink to formulate your most vibrant pinky blush recipe to date!
Hi Amber! You can read more about ultramarines here. Long story short—they are not ideal, but for a few colours they’re really all we’ve got. Oxides are basically rust, so browns and reds make sense… bright blue, less so. They are what I use for these colours as I rarely need them, and usually need just the smallest amount. I’ll leave it to you to decide if you want to use them 🙂
Thanks for this post–it will really help me out! I REALLY want to buy at one fruit extract, although. I just don’t know which one. Which one would you recommend that is the most versatile?
Much love! Xxx
Hi Sophia! Since I really haven’t been impressed with any of the fruit extracts I’ve tried I really don’t feel good about recommending any of them :/ Rosehip is at least useful for colouring bath bombs if you like pink…
Do the fruit extracts have any smell to them at all?
I haven’t tried many of them (I think mango and pineapple?), but with those I didn’t notice much of anything in the way of scent, even when wet.
Beginning DIYer here…
Ugh… how I wish I stumbled upon this specific article before I had gone out and “invested” (splurged? BURNED MONEY?!) in essential oils that were “on sale” (but not for discontinuation).
Marie, if it’s okay with you, I’d like to write you a “lengthy” email about your DIY Beginners series, the essential oils (UGH!) I’m expecting, and other stuff.
Coming from the Philippines, I sure wish I didn’t buy an essential oil that I could’ve found here. I would be shooting myself in the foot if I put myself in the position of “Made in the Philippines. Sent to America. Bought in America and sent back to the Philippines with a bagillion percent mark-up.”
Oi… *shakes head*
…I just remembered I also bought several CARRIER oils on sale… *shudder*…
That may be just fine—I have some that I bought on sale that were discontinued and I miss them dearly!
Hi Kay-L! Sorry to help a bit late, hopefully you still find this useful going forward 🙂 And of course, feel free to send me an email—I can’t say I’m tooooo speedy with replies these days, though.
Hi marie
You may want to stock up on olive oil. Italy being the main producer has had a poor crop. Many olive groves suffered from plant rot. Just a fyi.
Thank you for the heads up! I will do exactly that ASAP.
Hi Marie, I’ve been asking too many questions on your YouTube channel, but none of them are replied. It’s okaaayy. I will still dive deep on your blog. I have a few questions, what if I want to add some plant extract on my DIY face serum? Do I need to preserve them or what? I only make anhydrous products. Because in my country, I’s so difficult to find Germal Liquid plus . I can only find opthipen. Is that okay? (If I want to make lotion or face cream based on water) thank youuuu
For the plant extract, you will need to consider solubility—read more on that here. To learn more about when you need to add a preservative, read this. To learn more about preservatives, this is an amazing resource. Make sure you know which optiphen you are getting as that matters! For reply times, read this 🙂 Happy making!
I’ve been following your blog for a couple of years now, and man do I wish I had seen it when I started making soap and other beauty products!! I don’t know how I haven’t seen this post before now! Anyway, totally agree with everything you listed, and after making items for 6 years now, I thought I’d add a couple of suggestions for others! The main thing is research ingredients AND the company selling them…I am in the US, and I love Bramble Berry, along with a few others. I think waxes and Shea butter have the biggest differences. The best candelilla is double refined…I discovered this after using it for several years, then BB had theirs on sale,and it’s tiny grains like sand. I was excited since the bigger pieces take so long to melt, and bought several pounds. It makes lip balm and lotion bars grainy, no matter what I do, and I wish I had checked further as I’m now stuck with it! Same with beeswax, etc. Shea butter…wow, who knew there were so many kinds? I only buy high melt point shea for lip balm, because of the grainyness, but I love raw Shea for other things, but not from just anywhere! Some raw Shea smells awful and rancid but it shouldn’t if it’s done right, so research and review! It kills me to throw out ingredients, and it’s expensive, so I am much more careful now! And salt, yep I have numerous pounds in different sizes, kinds and colors, cuz I got it on sale. It will take many years to use it all up, and none of it works better than Epsom salt! Colorants, I literally have hundreds, since I make soap, but I purchased a lot before I knew that many don’t work in cp soap, and I rarely use melt and pour! Research titanium dioxide, some disperse only in oil, some only in water, but the best disperse in both, so that’s the one to buy!! Last is “unique” oils without knowing exactly how you want to use them! I have watermelon seed oil, black cumin oil, karanja oil, mustard seed oil, and black currant oil, to name a few that I have never used & don’t know what to do with them! They are just taking up space in my fridge!! Sorry so long, but I hope it helps someone!!
All excellent picks! Especially on the soap colourants for CP—I have so many useless ones, too 🙁 And I am definitely guilty of the unique oils thing! Anyone have any suggestions for a ton of chaulmongra oil? 😛
You say not to bother with Food Grade oils and I agree. But you say “except for cheap olive oil and lard/tallow”. Can you clarify….does that mean do or don’t buy cheap olive oil and lard/tallow?
Go ahead and buy ’em! For those ingredients that’s often the easiest and cheapest way to get them 🙂
I’m not sure why I just now read this article! Maybe because deep down I knew buying all of those $1.65 samples of mica in various colors weren’t the best use of my money. I think I’m afraid of mixing the oxides myself to achieve a color. I fear I will waste them because they cost a little more. I should do the math…do they really cost more than micas?
Love your site, videos and the book!
I’ve actually come around a bit on micas, but only for making eyeshadow 🙂 If you don’t make eyeshadow I think you’re likely fine with oxides for colour, you just need to be careful not to use too much! In terms of usage rate & colour pay off, I suspect they’re quite a lot cheaper. Happy making!